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Spain's conservative Popular Party elects Pablo Casado as new leader

Pablo Casado is the new leader of Spain's Popular Party, replacing Mariano Rajoy, who resigned last month. Casado could become Spain's next prime minister if his party wins general elections due by 2020 at the latest.

Casado, 37, is expected to take the Popular Party further to the right. He has previously criticized Saenz de Santamaria's management of the separatist crisis in Catalonia when she was in charge of relations between Madrid and regions.

He has taken a tough stance on Catalonia, calling for additional offences, such as illegally calling a referendum, to be added to the criminal code to harden Spain's legal response to the secession threat.

"Dialogue doesn't work with those who want to break the law," he said this week.

He is also against depenalizing euthanasia as promoted by the Socialist government and wants to lower income and corporate taxes.

A total of 3,082 delegates cast their vote in Madrid for the successor to Rajoy, who spoke for the last time as PP leader on Friday.

In a long, emotional speech, 63-year-old Rajoy had asked PP members to "be responsible in carrying out your duties."

Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

A Roman province

The Romans had several provinces with Hispania in their names on the Iberian Peninsula. Modern Spain also encompasses such wide cultural diversity that the Spanish themselves speak of Las Espanas (The Spains). The country in its present form was never united under a single ruler until after the 1702-14 War of the Spanish Succession.

Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

A nation of regions

Spanish nationalism is strong in many regions, with former kingdoms such as Aragon largely content to be recognized as part of the Spanish nation-state. Asturias has its own language, but takes pride in its role as the birthplace of the Reconquista, or the taking back of Iberia from the Moors. Spanish nationalism was evident in recent protests in Madrid in response to Catalonia's referendum.

Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

Bloodied fingers

Catalonia has long battled for independence. Its flag, the Senyera, is very similar to that of Aragon, to which it once belonged. The design is fabled to represent four bloodied fingers of Count Wilfred the Hairy being passed over a gold shield. Catalans were fairly happy with their situation until a court struck down the region's statute of autonomy in 2006 and support for independence grew.

Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

No great appetite

Valencianismo, or Valencian nationalism, sprang out of the Renaixenca, an early-19th-century rebirth of the Catalan language, of which Valencian is just one variant. However, nationalist sentiment is not widespread in the region, which is home to Spain's Tomatina tomato-throwing festival. The Valencian Nationalist Bloc usually gets about 4 percent of the vote for the autonomous parliament.

Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

Other Catalan territories

The Balearic Islands — Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Formentera — all speak variants of Catalan. Though there is a greater nationalist feeling on the islands than in Valencia, it is still more subdued than in Catalonia. Meanwhile, La Franja, a strip of Catalan-speaking land in Aragon, was split by the independence referendum, though most residents do not advocate self-determination for themselves.

Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

The Basque Country

Because of terror attacks by the ETA militant group, Basque separatists used to make the headlines far more often than Catalonia's independence movement. Separatists consider the Basque Country in France and Spain and the region of Navarre to be one nation. About a third of people want full independence, but most want more autonomy. A referendum proposed in 2008 was ruled illegal.

Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

The Galician cause

Although it was the birthplace of the centralist dictator Francisco Franco, Galicia has the strongest tradition of separatism after Catalonia and the Basque Country. Even Spain's mainstream national parties display a streak of Galicianism in the region. Perhaps as a result, starkly nationalist parties receive a lower share of the regional vote.

Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities

From caliphate to community

The Arabic name al-Andalus originally refers to the areas of the Iberian Peninsula that were under Moorish rule for 760 years. As Christians reconquered territories, the area known as Andalusia shrank southwards. Most Andalusians voted for autonomy after Franco died in 1975, but there is little appetite for full independence.